Navy Vet Sues Governor Cuomo After He Has Guns Confiscated

New York Democrats, despite Governor Cuomo stating explicitly that gun “confiscation could be an option” in his state, tried desperately to say that such an idea was simply right-wing paranoia.

Then in January, when debate on the SAFE Act began (After it was passed in the middle of the night), Democrats were caught with a wish list of items they wanted included in the gun legislation. Items that included “Confiscation of ‘assault weapons’” and “Confiscation of ten round clips.”

Now it looks like the gun-confiscating Democrats are getting their wish.

Navy veteran and retired New York police officer Donald Montgomery had his guns taken from him after seeking treatment for insomnia.

His troubles started when he visited a Long Island hospital in May complaining of insomnia. He was discharged with a diagnosis of “depression, insomnia” and then returned a short time later for a 48-hour stay. The lawsuit says that during that visit, staff erroneously listed him as an “involuntary admission,” triggering the SAFE Act reporting provision. Those deemed at-risk for owning guns by mental health professionals have to be reported and their names entered into a database.

The lawsuit claims Montgomery should not have been reported because he was not a threat to himself or others. The suit says a hospital psychiatrist told him “You don’t belong here” and “I don’t know why you were referred here.”

The Daily Caller reports that on May 30, a week after his hospital stay, Suffolk County sheriff’s deputies confiscated Montgomery’s guns. His pistol license was then suspended in June and revoked three months later.

Mental Recession readers know that Cuomo’s SAFE Act already allows for social workers, registered nurses, and “unlicensed” psychologists to determine whether or not state police can seize a gun owner’s weapons.

In Montgomery’s case, it appears that “staff” were responsible for a Navy veteran losing his Constitutional rights.

A U.S. Navy veteran and retired police detective is suing New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other state officials for confiscating his gun permit and four handguns after he voluntarily sought medical treatment for insomnia.

In a lawsuit filed Dec. 17 in a U.S. District Court in Rochester, N.Y., Donald Montgomery claimed his constitutional rights were violated by the state’s SAFE Act.

…

Mr. Montgomery is now alleging that the state violated his Second, Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment protections and the the hospital violated his privacy by sharing his medical information with police.

He demands the judge strike down the Mental Hygiene Law under the SAFE Act and the state issue a new law to require written notice for all individuals whose health information has been shared with police under the state law, The Daily Caller reported.

Reports indicate that as many as 34,500 people have been prohibited from owning firearms in New York due to the same circumstances surrounding Montgomery’s case – having sought medical or mental health aid, and being subsequently labelled as a ‘danger to themselves or others.’

Cuomo has continually referred to the SAFE Act as “sensible gun control.”

After the SAFE Act was signed into law and lawmakers were debating the merits, a video surfaced of Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin producing an actual document, a Democrat wish list for gun control, which included confiscation of so-called “assault weapons,” as well as the confiscation of clips.

In the video seen below, Democrat Assemblyman Joseph Lentol can be heard pleading with McLaughlin that he not share the list “because it has the capacity to dampen the enthusiasm of compromise.” To which McLaughlin replies, “It sure does, when we talk about the confiscation of assault weapons.”

About the AuthorRusty Weiss

Rusty Weiss is a freelance journalist focusing on the conservative movement and its political agenda. He has been writing conservatively charged articles for several years in the upstate New York area, and his writings have appeared in the Daily Caller, American Thinker, FoxNews.com, Big Government, the Times Union, and the Troy Record. He is also Editor of one of the top conservative blogs of 2012, the Mental Recession.